Serving Up the Enterprise

A few years ago, keeping up with Microsoft’s server products was easy.
You ran Windows NT Advanced Server as the operating system, SQL Server
for your databases, and Exchange Server for your e-mail. Some shops went
with SMS for software distribution or SNA Server (later renamed Host Integration
Server) for IBM integration. And, of course, you bought it all in the
convenient Microsoft BackOffice bundle.

Those days are gone, along with BackOffice itself. Microsoft’s offerings
for the server room have expanded to the point where it’s hard for anyone
to keep up. New server products tackle 21st-century challenges such as
the need for wireless and Internet connectivity and management of server
farms and workflow. If you have a need in your IT environment, chances
are Microsoft has a solution.

But are all solutions created equal? In this article, we take a look
at six of the new servers, giving you the lowdown on how well they work,
if they’re ready for the enterprise data center, or if you should wait
for more tweaking or (gasp!) look at a non-Microsoft product instead.